The Dragoness
by Ezqueza
Summary: Deryn has her own crew. Totally unrealistic, im changing history and everything. Just a fun idea  Includes: Deryn, OCs, original beasties


It was not an honor, really. It was more of a symbol. 'Hey look at us! We have a better military than you~ we even send our _girls _into battle! We're so tough!'

Deryn Sighed. She knew she was meant to be happy. Here she was, a liar who dressed up as an honest man, and somehow granted her own ship and crew. Something smelled rotten, though she was yet to picture what. A world run by men did not simply accept women overnight. Or at all. Their explanation was that women were lighter, they were low on recruits, and its high time women did something useful, all of it a load of blather. Apparently, the best agents of Great Britain had tracked down these girls Deryn would be in command of. Apparently, they were each the best the female sex could offer, which might not be much. Every ally nation had also pushed forward their best girls, wanting to be a part of the strange project. Not even a project really, just a symbol.

The first coach sped into view. This one would be from England, supposedly also carrying the girl from France. The English girl was to be the ship's Boffin. Deryn had little idea of what the French girl was for. In the second coach would be the Japanese girl and surprisingly, an American. The Japanese girl would be a translator and navigator, while the American would work on the engines. Not only was the _Dragoness _the first female-piloted beastie, but the first official Clanker-Darwinist hybrid. Hell knows there are stranger things in America.

Deryn suddenly became nervous. These girls were just like her, outcasts with a talent for men's work. She did not know what she thought about other girls, she never had much of an impression of the ones back home, just that they flocked together and were very exclusive. If things went right, Deryn might be spending the rest of her career with these girls, and was yet to even know how a girl was meant to act. After thinking of this, she mentally slapped herself. She was their captain! Not their friend. She did not join the air service to make friends.

The captain of the _Leviathan, _her instructor in how to run a ship, had once told her that the smaller the crew the harder it was to run it. You get to attached to each other, or more commonly, cannot stand each other after the first week, especially in the cramped belly of the ship they had. The _Dragoness _was a pathetic ship, a test to see if women were useful enough to get things done. The most annoying thing was they purposely called it 'Dragoness' to make them sound female. Could nothing be simple warfare? Deryn had seen her so called ship and winced at the thought of living in it. The innards were too narrow for actual rooms, rather bunks in its rib cage. While the beastie was long, it had little height or width. Deryn just barely could stand up in it. It was not a hydrogen breather, their slow floating flight patterns not enough for the Boffins. This creature had _wings. _The _Dragoness _was not a warship, it was a messenger's vessel. The creature was estimated to be able to fly across the world in a matter of hours at full speed. The wings did not beat, only glided along with it's Clakner engines propelling it forward. The most interesting part, the reason the beastie was being tested on a bunch of girls, was that it was also a water beastie. It had flaps of skin that supposedly sealed every crack to allow it to dive into the ocean when needed. The walls had gills, flowing air into the vessel through the skin's pores. The beastie had been tested to be safe, but such a creature was hard to control. Perhaps the sadistic Boffins thought if girls could fly a _Dragoness_ they could handle anything.

At the moment, the beastie was inside of a colossal stall, tied up. It had the stamina of a hundred horses, and all that energy had to go somewhere. At the moment, the crew was the most pressing matter. Deryn had been sitting by the window, staring at the two coaches that would bring her small crew to work in a painfully small ship. Hung on a wall next to her was the map with each checkpoint of their first mission, their trail mission. The _Dragoness_ was very small, and could store little food. This was made up for its amazing speed, but hours on end were still a long time without food or water. The checkpoints were to fill the tanks with as much water as could carry and take as much food as there was room for. As a last resort, the _Dragoness_ had an edible moss growing near the gills. This moss was only to be eaten in a state of absolute starvation, for it grew slowly and was nasty stuff. The mission was simple actually, the message they had to deliver was that there were women joining the army, which would be quite obvious.

The handle of the door turned behind her, and Deryn turned to see three men and two girls walk into the room. The first girl looked to be about sixteen, just older then Deryn. She was tall and blonde with dark brown eyes. Her hair came in ringlets around her face. Though she was tall, she was not lanky like Deryn was. Deryn could not help but notice she was a bit too shapely for her uniform, which was just a boy's uniform tailored like mad. The other girl had dark hair that was tied up under a Boffin hat that looked a squick too big for her. It was tipped to the side, looking as if it might fall off. She too wore her uniform, but it made her look a bit less…well… a bit less like the other girl. Since her eyes were glued to the floor, Deryn thought back to the shy girls of Glasgow who never left their houses. Was one of those shy girls honestly on her ship? Well, the air service could not be picky when it came to female Boffins.

"Sit down," Deryn said, trying to sound like she knew what she was doing, "We still have to wait for the other two."

Near the wall the map was pinned to, were four chairs. Neither girl made any intention of coming any closer to their captain. No doubt they had heard about her in the news. _Deryn Sharp the Whore,_ or _A Woman Among Men,_ or worst of all, _Good Girl Gone Wild The Inside Story. _Deryn did not blame them for keeping their distance. She had made a bit of a scene when she was told she could never serve on the _Leviathan _again. No doubt that story had gotten into the papers and spiced up a bit by editors.

The next couple of hours were painful. The men had left to prepare to greet the next coach, leaving Deryn and her two crew women in silence. These girls were _older_ than her, and the blonde didn't look to have a thought in her head. Deryn wondered which one was French and which one was English, but did not speak to them. After a long while the Boffin girl raised her hand. It took Deryn a while to realize that she was asking permission to speak.

"Yes?" she replied, not knowing quite what to say to this abrupt question of authority.

"I may have heard incorrectly," she said in a small English voice, "But I was told that we would be a crew of all women, and have a female captain as well."

A blush rose to Deryn's cheeks.

"Yes, you do have a female captain, that would be me, I am a girl." She said.

The Boffin's face went bright red.

"Oh miss! I am very sorry, my sincerest apologies!" she said very quickly. She began to babble all sorts of apologetic words when the blonde cut in.

"Why is your hair so short then?" she asked in a French accent.

"I had to cut it to join the air service," Deryn said slowly, had these girls not heard of her?

"Oh!" the French girl said as realization dawned on her, "You're _her! _That girl, the one who was caught dressing like a boy! My mother told me all about it, she said it was a scandalous thing! I just kept thinking how… how… how…" The girl began to stutter with excitement, "Just how _romantic _the whole thing was!"

Deryn blinked. Had she just said romantic?

"Well of course it is romantic!" The French girl said after reading Deryn's expression, "A lone girl on a ship full of men, only that special boy knowing of your secrets as you sail through the sky."

The French girl wrapped her arms around herself and stared dreamily at the ceiling.

"You _did _have a boy, didn't you?" she questioned.

"No," Deryn said flatly, as thoughts of the old crew swam through her head.

The dreamy smile became wider.

"You're LYING!" she almost sang, "I know you are, something in your eyes! You're lying! Oh we will have to be good friends, you can tell me all about him!"

The girl crossed the room and held out a hand. Deryn shook it hesitantly. The other girl scurried up to Deryn a well.

"I'm Eve!" said the French girl, "And you are the famous Deryn Sharp I'm sure!"

After Eve had introduced herself, the Boffin girl held out a shaking hand, not used to the men's way of introducing herself.

"Ingrid," she said quietly, "Ingrid Smith."

Great. Barking magnificent. Deryn Sharp's two first crew women were a love crazed French girl and girl afraid of her won shadow. The mission would _not _end well.

Out of the corner of her eye, Deryn saw the second coach pull into view. Moments later, her last two crew women were led into the room. The first was obviously the American. She had bright red hair in short ponytails and a mass of freckles across her face. She did not wear her uniform, instead wearing a common-class dress. Over her hair was a rag that made her look a bit like a serving girl at a bar. This girl did not wait awkwardly to stride across the room. As she became closer Deryn saw the oil stains on her skirt. Daintily stretching out her hand, she gave a warm smile.

"My name is Anne," she said in an airy voice, "You are our captain then?"

"Yes," Deryn Said, "Deryn Sharp at your service."

"Well aren't you polite," Anne said. She seemed to blow an awful lot of air out when she talked, as if every word was a sigh. "This is Jun, she was telling me the most interesting stories on the way over here."

Jun made a grimace, as if the interesting stories had been pried out of her.

"Did you know," Anne said, "That the Botfly lays it's eggs in your skin, then the larva has to eat its way out?"

Deryn tried not to make a face.

"Yeah, its true," Anne continued, "Jun said she had to remove a dangerous infestation of them from a little boy's head once!"

Jun made an apologetic face to the other girls. Obviously the story had been very uncomfortable to tell.

The only person seemingly interested was Ingrid.

"So they feed off of skin?" she asked, less shakily than before. "Just like the parasites in the spideresque's venom."

"Eww! You make fabrications of _spiders?"_ Anne said, "Aren't they bad enough already?"

Deryn then took it upon herself to clear her throat.

"Ladies," she said in her best authority-voice, "It is high time I tell you what our mission is. If you would take a seat I would like to… erm… start is the best word I can think of."

**Okay, first of all I DO intend upon finishing my story submitted in 'Oh No More Drabbles," but my computer is in the store and I am borrowing my roomate's computer to write. I cannot post as often as I want to and all my finished files for continuations are in my computer, so this little story will have to do. **

**Please Review!**


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